bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[znavko]

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Hello! I was not able to install Guix having 2 partitions:
/dev/sda1 ext4 Linux filesystem
/dev/sda2 Linux Swap

`guix system init` says in this case:
guix system: error: failed to install bootloader

Screen: http://0x0.st/zeLs.jpg

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Danny Milosavljevic]

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Hi,

which grub is that? grub-efi?

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Danny,

Danny Milosavljevic wrote:
> which grub is that? grub-efi?

i386-pc, so ‘BIOS’ (which means it's trying to use blocklists, 
which is fragile & won't work without --force).

Kind regards,

T G-R

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[znavko]

Yes, I use Bios grub everywhere.

June 17, 2019 5:10 PM, "Tobias Geerinckx-Rice" <me@tobias.gr> wrote:

> Danny,
> 
> Danny Milosavljevic wrote:
> 
>> which grub is that? grub-efi?
> 
> i386-pc, so ‘BIOS’ (which means it's trying to use blocklists,
> which is fragile & won't work without --force).
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> T G-R

bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Znavko,

znavko@disroot.org wrote:
> bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

Installing GRUB to your root partition isn't supported, and should 
never be necessary anyway.

> Hello! I was not able to install Guix having 2 partitions:
> /dev/sda1 ext4 Linux filesystem
> /dev/sda2 Linux Swap

This is a strange partition layout; it's missing a ‘BIOS boot 
partition’ and can never work without forcing GRUB to do something 
it doesn't like to do.

Did you create this layout manually?  If so, why?

Kind regards,

T G-R

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Mark H Weaver]

Hi Tobias,

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> writes:

> znavko@disroot.org wrote:
>> bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition
>
> Installing GRUB to your root partition isn't supported, and should
> never be necessary anyway.
>
>> Hello! I was not able to install Guix having 2 partitions:
>> /dev/sda1 ext4 Linux filesystem
>> /dev/sda2 Linux Swap
>
> This is a strange partition layout; it's missing a ‘BIOS boot
> partition’ and can never work without forcing GRUB to do something it
> doesn't like to do.
>
> Did you create this layout manually?  If so, why?

FWIW, I used this partition layout for years, including on Guix systems,
and it worked fine.  Long ago, bootloaders were only able to access the
first 8 GB or so of the disk, because of limitations in the old INT 13h
BIOS interface.  Maybe this is still an issue on some ancient machines,
but I tend to use older hardware (my best laptop is ~11 years old, and
that's typical for me) and I've not had this issue in recent memory.

The only reason I started using a separate boot partition again is
because I now encrypt my root partition.

      Mark

bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Mark H Weaver wrote:
> FWIW, I used this partition layout for years, including on Guix 
> systems,
> and it worked fine.

Impossible, sorry.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Mark H Weaver]

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> writes:

> Mark H Weaver wrote:
>> FWIW, I used this partition layout for years, including on Guix
>> systems,
>> and it worked fine.
>
> Impossible, sorry.

In fact, it _is_ possible, if you use an MBR partition table.  I assumed
that znavko was using MBR, but having now finally looked at the provided
screen image, I see now that they're using GPT.  I agree that in this
case, a BIOS boot partition is required.  I should have looked more
closely before responding, sorry.

     Best,
      Mark

bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[znavko]

I have another laptop (Lenovo G50-30) where Guix works on this partition layout I've made manually:

# fdisk -l /dev/sda
...
Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1            2048 230000000 229997953 109.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       230000640 234441647   4441008   2.1G 82 Linux swap / Solaris


But all the new installations on other two notebooks with the same layout do not work.


June 17, 2019 5:07 PM, "Tobias Geerinckx-Rice" <me@tobias.gr> wrote:

> Znavko,
> 
> znavko@disroot.org wrote:
> 
>> bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition
> 
> Installing GRUB to your root partition isn't supported, and should
> never be necessary anyway.
> 
>> Hello! I was not able to install Guix having 2 partitions:
>> /dev/sda1 ext4 Linux filesystem
>> /dev/sda2 Linux Swap
> 
> This is a strange partition layout; it's missing a ‘BIOS boot
> partition’ and can never work without forcing GRUB to do something
> it doesn't like to do.
> 
> Did you create this layout manually? If so, why?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> T G-R

bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Znavko,

znavko@disroot.org wrote:
> I have another laptop (Lenovo G50-30) where Guix works on this 
> partition layout I've made manually:
>
> # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> ...

^ You removed the most important part, please don't do this on 
help lists.

Still, we can tell that this is an ‘mbr’ layout:

> Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
> /dev/sda1            2048 230000000 229997953 109.7G 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2       230000640 234441647   4441008   2.1G 82 Linux 
> swap / Solaris
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> But all the new installations on other two notebooks with the 
> same layout do not work.

They aren't the same: the one in your screenshot is a completely 
different ‘gpt’ layout.

Hence my unanswered question:

> Did you create this layout manually? If so, why?

Although now I suspect there was no reason and that the installer 
isn't to blame.

So you can either:

- throw away your existing layout and create new MBR disklabel. 
  Your partitioning software will ask you or provide an option 
  somewhere.  Since modern partitioning software leaves a huge gap 
  before the first partition, GRUB will nestle cosily into that 
  first unused ~MiB.

- keep it as GPT (it has some minor features MBR doesn't), and 
  create an additional GPT ‘BIOS boot partition’ as recommended 
  before.  It only needs to be a few 100 KiB, so I use the space 
  before the first partition (= before the first megabyte; turning 
  off ‘alignment’ in your partitioning software).  This tiny 
  partition is for use by GRUB, and GRUB alone: do not format or 
  mount it.

Both options work equally well, but you need to choose.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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bug#36262: cannot install bootloader to root partition

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 04:33:22AM +0200, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice wrote:
> Although now I suspect there was no reason and that the installer isn't to
> blame.
> 

The graphical installer does not display a warning when not adding a
separate boot partition on GPT (an installer bug?), but installs
everything only to fail at the very end (this is another bug of guix
system?) at bootloader installation.

Regards,
Florian